What are the essential skills needed to run an eCommerce business? Starting, and then managing a business of any kind, is a dream for many people out there. But, how do you start? What do you need to know before starting an online business, and how can you build a team to help you grow? Read on to find out.
You may be great at certain things, and there are some elements to running an eCommerce business that you will need help with. It’s important to know the difference.
Because, even though you’ll probably start as a one-man show, bootstrapping your way through the early days, you need to have a long-term mindset and think about how you can put yourself and your business in the best position.
Hard skills vs Soft skills
Hard skills are those that help you accomplish certain tasks mostly individually, while soft skills are usually the way of becoming better as a part of a larger team, by being a team player or leading a team.
Putting it very basically, hard skills will make you effective and (hopefully) efficient in completing various tasks, while soft skills will help you achieve business goals in the long run.
Now, how can this split help you with your plans? What are the skills needed to start an eCommerce business? And what do you need to learn or outsource to help you grow?
Hard skills to start an eCommerce business
You should always strive for a good balance in any team, but in this case, when starting an eCommerce business, the inclination is to focus more on hard skills.
These are some of the hard skills that you need to learn before you start an eCommerce business. Some of them are often referred to as technical skills in the eCommerce industry:
- Data analysis
- SEO
- Email marketing
- UX design
- Content creation
- Paid advertising
- Social media management
- Software development
Some of these abilities may happen easily to you, while others will require help. Hire a marketing company, a freelancer, or an independent expert to assist you with the process.
Soft skills to grow an eCommerce business
However, once you, hopefully, get the hard part right, the need for the soft touches becomes increasingly apparent.
What are the soft skills you will need to grow your business?
You need to organize work better, hire new team members, handle customer support with empathy and care, find quality partners for growth, and establish relationships throughout your industry.
These are the soft skills you will need:
- Leadership
- Organizational skills
- Problem-solving
- Critical thinking
- Decision making
- Team management
- Communication
- Networking
I’ve listed those that I feel are among the most important ones if you’re running and growing an eCommerce business. Many others can be equally important, and you can take a look at a longer list of various hard vs soft skills in the article previously mentioned.